Depth estimation of light field data from pinhole-masked DSLR cameras

In this paper, depth estimation of light field data obtained from the pinhole-masked camera system is proposed. In the first approach, the sharpness of objects in the refocused images is evaluated using the FFT method, from which an empirical formula can be obtained to estimate the depth of objects. The second method uses the raw data in sub-images to calculate an index, Average Absolute Difference (AAD), for depth estimation purposes. The advantages and disadvantages of two proposed approaches are discussed and compared.